


Keep running till we're there

by catalytic



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Meaningful Handholding, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 03:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13472766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catalytic/pseuds/catalytic
Summary: “You are invaluable to me,” Thor said. “ I do not take lightly the task of sharing my troubles and adventures.”--just some soft bruce and thor, talking about home and where to find it. slightly introspective,  i meant it as pre-slash but it's fairly platonic.





	Keep running till we're there

**Author's Note:**

> i am wishing with all my might to find more thor/bruce content. sorry if these two may seem out of sorts, writing about them was sort of an accident lol. all mistakes are my own, if you have any criticism or just a nice comment, feel free to send it my way!!!
> 
> the title taken from home by dotan, mostly because i just like the song

Bruce liked Earth. He loved the tight, crowded cities filled with throngs of busybodies who simultaneously never acknowledged the people around them and paid far too much attention to what others were up to. He also loved the silent streets of dry, abandoned towns and quiet drives on long, lightless highways. Humans were his favorite creatures. Or his second favorite, his first favorite may be marine mammals. 

(Stark thought it was amusing. 

“What, like the killer whale?” Tony had said keenly. Bruce gave him a sour face. That wasn’t what he said. He was fascinated by all of them.

“My favorite is the dolphin.” Stark continued, flicking past the documentary that was briefly on screen.

He bared all of his teeth in a sharp expression, challenging and a happy all at once. Bruce thought it suited him. The dolphin.)

Humans were also horrible. So horrible. Bruce has seen many atrocities, has heard of many more. He’s traveled the world and seen the worst of the worst. He has been the worst, has been a part of disasters and crisis that could have been prevented if someone better than him were in his place. Sometimes he thought that if he could be anywhere else in the universe, he would be. But despite all that, there was still something enthralling about Earth and its citizens. People were both predictable and unpredictable, they would hurt you just as quickly as they would help you, so long as you didn't seem like a threat. 

Not that Bruce had been to many other planets. There was that one recently, the one he woke up on. The trash planet with the time-rifts and the inter-dimensional wormholes? He was far too anxious and disoriented to take it in. He’s been to Asgard as well. It didn’t leave a very good impression, what with a war hungry tyrant greeting them, and having a hot girl have to see him transform into the Hulk, and all the fire. All the finely clothed people looking tired and haunted. Also Loki was there. That place was not in a top twenty list for relaxing, picturesque travel destinations. Bruce was happy to have left, even if what it must have felt to Thor pained him.

Loki is still here, however. He and Thor have been telling a lot of tales on their sojourn through space, fun jaunty things that sound fantastical and unreal.The Asgardians don’t have much else to do, with the ship being tended to by the rebels. Every evening, whenever they’ve decided evening is in the depths of space, people gather around the Asgardian royalty like they have their own gravitational pull. Loki is the moon pulling in his tides and Thor is the sun wrapping people around him with his warmth. The brothers are both loved, both respected and revered and cherished (and feared) in a way that both boggles Bruce’s mind and he also completely understands. He, too, always listens in when someone is weaving a story.

Before all that, Thor spends his time listening to Asgardian disputes. High and mighty in his chair-turned-throne. He also listens to all the other ship’s troubles, as he considers them all worthy of his help. ‘This Ship, these people,’ Thor once said, ‘ 'Tis they who are Asgard.’ 

Bruce finds this endearing, even if all it does is give Thor more work to do and makes him feel more self-important.

\--

“I have ultimately decided we will go to Earth, and build a new Asgard.” Thor announced to Bruce’s bedroom. He entered holding two tankards of beer, magicked in by Loki’s deft hand. (Loki loved showing off more than he loved denying his brother things.)

Bruce blanched. He had been waiting for Thor, who likes to talk to Bruce about some of the various problems he couldn’t think of a solution to. He likes Bruce’s opinion, and feels Bruce’s ‘many fields of study’ make him qualified to help people for some reason. Bruce took one of the tankards offered to him but didn’t drink, merely held onto it with both hands. 

“No, no. I can’t go back there, Thor.” 

“Hm?” Thor was drinking heartily, but his eyes were on Bruce.

“I really shouldn’t go back to Earth. Is there, uh, is there any other planet we can-- I can-- to go to?”

“What? Why not Earth? You love Earth.”

“Sure, I’ve certainly lived there all my life. But no, I--” said Bruce, unsure if he really wanted to explain this.

“Bruce, are you in trouble?”

Bruce snorted, a depreciating laugh. Oh, isn’t he always trouble? Thor drew himself up to his full height, which was intimidating.

“Bruce, if someone has threatened you, has made Earth unsafe for you, tell me and I shall rain holy justice upon them. You are a respected warrior and also my dearest friend. Our bonds were forged in times of strife, but also camaraderie, and they shall never be broken.” Thor looked serious, he looked like a champion, as though he was about to call down his lightning at once upon his ally's enemies. Bruce stared. He took a sip of his beer for something to do while his thoughts whirled around nothing at all.

“No no, it’s not… I am?” he stopped staring at Thor and looked down and to the side, nervously. His fingers clattered against the tankard, his other hand held more tightly onto its handle. “No, I mean. I just. I don’t like Earth, well, the planet’s fine. I’m saying, it doesn’t like _me_.”

Thor seemed to consider this. His gaze on Bruce was measuring, and it made him nervous because what did the God of Thunder see? Was he thinking of all the times the Hulk made a mess of everything? Every roar of anger recorded and spread around to the gossip of the world? The destruction, the death, the chaos... It was certainly what was on Bruce’s mind. Now, and always.

“Do you think…” Thor began, as though the idea was preposterous, “that you are not welcome on your home planet?”

Was Thor blind? Perhaps he didn’t see, because it was the weak and tiny Dr. Banner in front of him and not the Hulk. While the doctor was welcome in more spaces than none at all, his giant, emotional alter-ego was not. What would Thor know, of being othered by his own foolish, horrible doing?

“Somewhat, yes.” Bruce said, trying to feign casualness and falling into self-deprecating. 

He isn’t sure how it happened, but the next thing Bruce knew, Thor had his hand in one of his own and his tankard was in Thor’s other hand. Bruce’s own, freshly unoccupied hand made an aborted reaching movement as though it didn’t know what to do now that it was alone. Thor took a moment to consider the tankard and then finished it off in one long drink. Bruce watched, rapt with confusion. He noticed it showed off Thor’s neck, it had dulled scratches from fights long past.

The beer gone, Thor slowly and deliberately set it down onto the bedside table beside Bruce, which was coincidentally where Thor’s original drink was set. As he did this his shoulder brushed against Bruce’s arm. Bruce startled slightly, though he tried to hide it. His arm tugged against Thor’s hold but it was firm. Thor’s eyes never left Bruce’s face, and Bruce couldn’t figure out his expression.

Thor was. He was really warm. All that sunshine, radiating outwards towards anyone who desired it.

“Bruce Banner.” Thor began, as he took Bruce’s other hand with his own. This all felt very intimate and Bruce could do nothing but stare back at Thor.

“I vow to you that you will always have a home to return to. You will always be loved and accepted.” He said. 

“You don’t know that.” Bruce said, interrupting what may have been turning into a speech. Thor re-gripped Bruce’s hands. Bruce felt them, their rough texture that warmed his fingers. Thor’s fingers on his palm.

“Yes, I do know this. Because although it may never replace Earth, you may know that Asgard will be your home for now and ever more.” 

Bruce must have made a dubious face, because Thor huffed. He even may have rolled his eyes, like Bruce was being willfully obtuse. “No, not the physical realm of Asgard, I am not under any illusions what has become of _that_. I mean here, with me. My-- the people, I mean.”

“You can’t just… say this is my home now, Thor.” Bruce said quietly. He was completely taken aback by this offer, and touched too. He felt his emotions swirling within him, all of them. He felt the Hulk, deep in the recesses of his mind, feel these things as well. Bruce couldn’t guess what he thought of all this. Hulk would be pleased to never see Earth again, probably. Bruce shifted his hands in Thor’s, though he didn’t notice. This is the second time he's been offered a place to stay, someplace that would welcome him. The first time was Stark, who was delighted to have someone around that he could spit jargon at and receive intelligent conversation back in a way that only huge, outlier nerds could appreciate. It was like... Bruce really had people he could count on, and they counted on him from some reason.

He felt that Thor was way too magnanimous, had too much kindness and wore too much of his heart on his sleeve and he wasn’t really making the right decision, letting a sometimes-always-monster become a part of his people. On a ship, no less. An enclosed space, that could be broken into pieces at any moment. The whole thing would explode and fracture and spin off into space and everyone would perish, nightmarishly.

Thor seemed to disagree with this thought process, “You are invaluable to me,” he said. “ I do not take lightly the task of sharing my troubles and adventures.” He was grinning now.

“And you have many degrees, I have heard that is quite essential to have so much knowledge, so I simply must have you on my council. Most of the others who I could have chosen to aid me to lead my people…” Thor looked towards the window, out into deep space where there were only distant stars. Maybe they were the same stars he could see on Asgard. “They are gone.” He finished. It seemed far too solemn for Thor, a boisterous jock who loved rowdy drinking songs. Bruce didn’t hate seeing this side of him, but it made him feel unbalanced.

“You’ve got Heimdall.” Bruce pointed out. He vaguely wondered when Thor would let his hands go. So far, they were there to stay.

“Aye, I do.” Thor said, proudly. “ And Loki.” He grinned again when Bruce made a noise of dissent. “I know you do not trust him, and rightly so. But he is my brother, and a prince of Asgard, and I love him still and know he has greatness in his heart.”

“Sure. He’s always seemed really spectacular to me.” Bruce grumbled, looking away from Thor and grimacing. 

This seemed to break the spell they were under. Thor let out a hearty laugh and let go of Bruce’s hands all at once to give him a friendly pat on the shoulder. Except, his hand stayed there, perched comfortably. Bruce still had his hands out, and his palms felt empty as he slowly lowered them and hooked his fingers into his pants pockets. Casual, nonchalant, not at all broadcasting how lonely he felt without Thor’s hands in his. 

“I do understand your dislike of my brother, Banner. I do not ask you to become his friend, but I can not stop loving him.” Thor said. “He is my brother, and I love him. As you are also important to me. If we can all exist in peace, that is all I ask.”

Bruce looked up at Thor, wryly. “Yep. As long as he stays away from me, I won’t think about letting someone smash him through the ship’s hull.”

Thor smiled, delighted he might get all his favorite people to get along and not face any of the dire consequences. “You could not destroy this ship so, after all it is your home now.”

“No, the ship is just a ship, Thor.” Bruce said, and then he saw Thor’s face fall a little he amended, “But you-- your people, Asgard. Maybe it’ll feel more like home to me soon. No one’s tried to run me out of town yet.”

Cheered by this, Thor gripped Bruce’s shoulder and slid his hand off, finally, following Bruce’s arm a little as he took it back. The warmth lingered. Bruce reached back to pick up one of the tankards, empty now. 

“Isn’t it about time for you to tell a story to your awaiting audience?” Bruce asked, reaching for the other tankard and passing it off to Thor’s waiting hands. Thor’s bright smile as he began to walk out of the room, Bruce beside him, glowed brightly. Even looking into his drink and finding it empty didn't dissuade his apparent happiness.

“Ha, yes indeed! It is very important, you know, that all of Asgard knows our ancient tales, and our modern ones as well. Yes, Today I may speak about Earth, And all its many wonders and peoples our own Asgardians may face.” He made a face, thoughtful, “Loki may not like these tales so much. Ah, ‘tis his own problem.” 

Bruce smiled, amused. 

He wasn’t Asgardian, he was human, Earth… Was his home. But, home isn’t always a place. Sometimes, it is people. A person. Something or Someone worth believing in and that believes in you. This ship, these people, they were beginning to feel like something new. Something he could hold close to his heart and gather strength from.

Even if Loki was there.

Bruce really liked Asgard.


End file.
